MONTREAL–It is from six feet behind the baseline that Rafael Nadal has produced the type of shot most players could only manage from well inside the court, a full-powered swing of his patented looping forehand that lands at the opposing baseline and kicks off of it to jam Fabio Fognini’s backhand and force an error.
This at the end of a rally that was 10 shots long, one that pushed Nadal from side to side like a windshield wiper. This at a critical juncture of this quarter-final match — down 2-6 and fighting to turn momentum for a love-40 lead and an early break of Fognini’s serve in the second set. Nadal has made a career of doing things like this — 18 years of producing shots that seem physically impossible. And he doesn’t appear anywhere close to being through doing this.
On Thursday, Nadal surpassed Roger Federer to become the all-time leader in Masters 1000 Series wins, registering his 379th with a 6-3, 6-4 throttling of Argentina’s Guido Pella. On Friday, he advanced to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup and kept his hopes alive of defending a hard-court title for the very first time of his career.
Let’s just say we’re not betting against him knocking that feat off and adding to his long list of accomplishments. With respect to Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov, who also impressed Friday en route to clinching their respective places in the semis — and without taking anything away from Gael Monfils and Roberto Bautista Agut, whose quarter-final match was delayed by rain and then postponed until Satuday — we can’t envision a scenario that has Nadal leaving Montreal without his fifth Rogers Cup championship in tow.
Certainly not after the performance he offered at centre court on this night, when with his back firmly up against the wall taking on a player that crushed him in their last meeting (4-6, 2-6 at Monte Carlo in April) he put the throttle down to wrap the match 6-1, 6-2.
A win in Montreal would give Nadal his 83rd singles title since joining the ATP Tour in 2001. That would leave him just 39 match wins short of 1000 and 108 shy of surpassing the great Ivan Lendl for third on the all-time list behind Federer (1222) and Jimmy Connors (1274). And, at 33 years old, which is old, bordering on ancient by professional tennis standards, he should have no issue getting there.
The fact is, Nadal hasn’t shown too many signs of slowing down.
"I’m having a good season, more or less, being competitive almost in every single event that I have been playing," the 18-time Grand Slam champion and world No. 2 said some 30 minutes after disposing of Fognini.
He was underselling it. Friday’s match was the Spaniard’s 40th win of the year versus only six losses. He made the final of the Australian Open in January, won his 12th French Open in April, took home his ninth Italian Open in May and fell just short of the Wimbledon final with a semifinal loss to Federer in July. Ankle and knee issues plagued him all the way through, but not so much that he was incapable of playing the same grinding style that has defined his brilliant career.
"I lost things on the road (over the years), so I just tried to add other things on the way to keep being competitive during all these years," he said. "One of the most important things for me personally and one of the things that I’m more satisfied is I have been able to find always a solution to keep being competitive at the highest level possible after a lot of problems, a lot of issues."
It’s what Nadal did against No. 11 in the world Fognini on Friday.
He was down a set after just 39 minutes of play, facing the 1-5 record he had accumulated when losing the first set of a match this season, and he was able to find solutions in a hurry.
"I lost 6-2 with the feeling I was not playing bad," Nadal said. "Honestly, the beginning of the match have been difficult because I have been playing probably a little bit better than him, but then the score was against me. I felt that I had a big chance to be (up) 3-love for me. Then (it) was 3-1 for him.
"After that, I played a bad game in the 3-1, and he played well. So the second break was decisive on the set. I just tried to play the last couple of games of the first, trying to play with the intensity that I wanted to have at the beginning of the second. I know the beginning of the second (was) going to be crucial."
Thirty-six minutes later, the match was even. Just 41 minutes after that, it was over.
Nadal had come out of it having won 88 per cent of his first-serve points, with seven aces to Fognini’s four, with four breaks of Fognini’s serve and with 76 of 137 points won — many of them in punishing fashion, just like the one he took to get those three break points in the second game of the second set.
"I’m happy with the way I’m competing and enjoying," he said. "Another opportunity to be in another final. Will be great if I’m able to make that happen."
It would be anything but a surprise.
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